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Caterpillar and PLM’s Advanced Technology in the Pipeline Industry
At Caterpillar and PipeLine Machinery’s all-day event at the Sam Houston Race Park Oct. 15, a full schedule and a wide array of topics combined to bring pipeline owners, contractors and engineers together for a day of expo and education.
Education sessions
Demonstrations and equipment closeups
Information, Please
Education came first, as PLM’s Mel Ternan explained, to show off “solutions we think you need to be aware of.” The first set of presentations introduced one of the day’s major themes, emission controls. The talks covered new regulations under discussion in Congress, upcoming changes in standards and the nonattainment areas that require special attention, then the new innovations and retrofit options Cat has developed to answer the need for meaner, cleaner machines. Given that new standards will not “grandfather in” old machines, the retrofitting options are a key development for contractors working in nonattainment areas. For the pipeliners, Mark Helgren of Cat Global Petroleum ran through the probable impact for compression stations, while Scott McBryde handled contractor and general construction horizons.
David Nicoll used the focus on lowered emissions to segue to an introduction of the Cat D7E Electric Drive Tractor, a completely reengineered successor to Cat’s market-leading D7R. The D7E introduces several innovations that improve efficiency, and Cat says they add up to a 25 percent jump in banked cubic yards per gallon of fuel over the D7R.
Scott Hagemann, David Sorensen and Bryan Brady then walked the audience through an explanation of connected-worksite GPS technology for construction equipment, with a focus on Caterpillar’s AccuGrade system and equipment management capabilities. Using base station and rover units, the AccuGrade technology can display the locations of no-go areas, preexisting structures and any other points of potential trouble on a site. The immediate, real-time mapping is meant to increase safety, decrease mistakes and accidents and speed up the marking and location process after initial surveys have been done. With equipment management, a fleet owner can create a “geo fence” or “time fence” to prevent unauthorized use of the equipment and remotely observe idle time versus working time.
Safety was also the topic for Sara Swanson, who introduced the tools available at safety.cat.com, Caterpillar’s worksite safety hub. The website provides free safety talks, guidelines, videos and checklists broken down by industry, and also offers online training courses for a fee.
Over lunch, Jim Yardley, president of El Paso’s Pipeline Group, presented the case for natural gas as a rising energy source in the United States: as a domestically available, abundant and geographically diversely located fuel, it offers relative cleanliness and security and it is available immediately, without any ramp-up period required.
Technology in Motion
With the indoor portion of the day completed, the attendees made their way outdoors to the proving ground where Caterpillar’s newer introductions to the fleet waited, ready to perform. The demonstration was plotted to show “a day in the life of a pipeliner,” and it began dutifully with a discussion on best safety practices.
Safety observed, the D7E made a dramatic entrance over a steep mound of earth and began to clear the area in front of the stands, demonstrating its quiet engine and surprising agility, including pivot turns.
Next, two 336 LGP excavators matched up head to head, as one equipped with AccuGrade dug swiftly into the area designated for the “pipeline,” while the second, manually positioned excavator idled waiting for markers to be placed.
While the excavators dueled, the small pipelayer PL61 and the Shack Tractor and Combo Unit ran through their paces. All are available specially prepared for Arctic weather, including cold-weather seals, winter-weight lubricants and a heating system for the cab.
With the trench dug (little thanks to the lazy excavator without AccuGrade), the larger pipelayers 587T and 583T took the stage to deliver a segment of pipe and lower it into the trench. The D7E reappeared and demonstrated its backfilling capabilities, and in no time dirt covered the end of the pipe and it was time for the credits to roll. As the machines filed by for a curtain call, the crowd applauded and followed the stars to the parking lots for a meet-and-greet session.
Pipeline specialists “kicked the tracks” and tried to avoid the healthy portion of clay-heavy Texas mud clinging to the machines, while the Caterpillar/PLM staff answered questions and guided tours. After a display half demonstration, half ballet, human and machine alike had a glow of yellow pride. Of course, it could have been the sun—or am I the only one who came home sunburned?
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